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October 30, 2013 - 10:58 AM

Today, U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) introduced an amendment
during the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)
mark-up of the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act (OAA) to fix the
funding formula to ensure that funds are fairly and appropriately allocated to
the states based on each state’s population of older Americans today. The
amendment was defeated by a 7-14 vote.

“The current funding formula for the Older Americans Act is both
outdated and unfair,” said Senator Burr. “Allocating funds based
on 13-year-old data penalizes states like North Carolina who have fast growing
populations of seniors and distorts funding so that these states do not get
their fair share. It is time to update this formula to ensure that the
dollars flow to where the seniors actually are today. While all of my
colleagues conceded that I was right and the formula is in fact broken, a
conclusion reached by the GAO three years ago, I was disappointed that they
chose to again ignore the issue and do nothing to fix this inequity.

The Older Americans Act provides access to services through a
network of state and local communities committed to caring for older Americans
to help them remain in their homes and communities, with specific emphasis on
those seniors with the greatest social and economic needs. The OAA
funding formula generally allocates federal funds to states based on the
proportion of older adults in each state. However, the previous
reauthorization in 2006 included a “hold harmless” provision that prevents states
from falling below their FY06 funding levels, which bases the formula on
population numbers from 2000 and therefore does not account for the changes in
older adult populations.

The Burr Amendment would strike the “hold harmless” provision and
ensure that funding allotments are based on current senior populations.